Health care resonates because prices baffle

Gary Andersen, Lee Smith

Editorial Board

On Tuesday night, Democrats won back the U.S. House of Representatives. On Wednesday, Speaker-in waiting Nancy Pelosi discussed their victory, noting that her party’s candidates who won in crucial swing districts stayed on message, and that message had primarily to do with health care, not President Trump.

The issue of health care is resonating with more people all the time for one simple reason — its price has become astonishing. Anyone who has received a medical bill scratches his or her head and wonders how in the world the prices they see can match up with anything in reality. Those with insurance, or with government help, are generally able to pay or tackle these bills, over time if nothing else. But the price levels and trend are disturbing and, one would think, unsustainable.

Many people also are growing pretty indignant with the notion that their lives, sometimes literally, are not much more than fodder feeding the high-priced medical industry. It appears to be an industry increasingly out of touch, especially if it cannot see that what it is doing is going to lead to more oversight, regulation and price controls that it does not want. Of course, it could do something about all this, but cannot seem to find the will or method to implement change.

One would hope, if nothing else, that the Democratic victories on Tuesday night might alert medical providers. Wake them up. Get more of them talking about solutions and ways to provide less-costly care. Get them to think about what they are doing and why. Is the object of medicine to diagnose, treat and cure, or to get rich and reward investors? If it is not the former, we’re certain Democrats will keep working to prohibit the latter. If not immediately, then inevitably.